There were many dozens of voices, but their separate testimonies yesterday coalesced into a united, pleading chorus: Don't cut state aid to programs and services that Marylanders rely on.

Representatives from advocacy groups for children, the mentally ill, the aged, the disabled, the addicted -- as well as for the environment and local governments, to name a few -- piled into the state's largest hearing room in Annapolis yesterday to ask a panel of fiscal experts to spare their budgets as they consider ways to address the state's $1.8 billion budget shortfall.

The urgency of the message was underscored by their numbers. State employees, dressed in the green T-shirts and caps of their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, occupied about 200 seats in the filled room, and some stood for hours in the halls outside. Other people sat in the aisles.

Many of the comments during the more than four-hour hearing revealed twinges of frustration.

Maryland's problem, said David McNear of Advocates for Children and Youth, "is not a spending problem, it's a revenue-raising problem."

"Do we want to be known as a state in which children go hungry while those of us who earn six figures sit back and do nothing?" asked Carl Stokes of the Children's Action Network.

"With all due respect, it's just not fair," said Marilyn Praisner of the Maryland Association of Counties, who noted that almost all Maryland counties were forced to raise taxes in the past few years while the state cut them.

"We need to increase funding, not cut it, or we will pay a very large price later," said Katrina Johnson of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council.

The advocates and interest groups were largely responding to money-saving options laid out last week by the General Assembly's Commission on Maryland's Fiscal Structure, a 17-member panel of legislative budget leaders as well as fiscal experts from outside state government.

Among the ideas the group is considering are cutting state employees' pay by 1 percent while increasing their costs associated with prescription drugs; withholding aid to local jurisdictions and cutting by 1 percent general aid to counties, community colleges and health departments; reducing services for the mentally ill; and giving no funding increase to state colleges and universities.

The commission's ideas for raising money include increasing the top income tax rate to 6 percent on Maryland residents with incomes in excess of $100,000; raising the state sales tax by 1 percentage point, to 6 percent; increasing the state property tax rate from 8.4 cents to 14.4 cents per $100 of assessed value; and doubling the tax on alcoholic beverages.

The panel's task was made slightly easier Wednesday, when Gov. Parris N. Glendening issued a plan to fix this year's $500 million budget deficit. Glendening's scheme, already partly under way, cuts almost 5 percent from most state agency budgets, eliminates pay increases for state workers and siphons $190 million from Maryland's "rainy day" fund.

But even if Glendening's plan works, the next governor and legislature will be faced with closing the $1.1 billion gap in next year's budget. It is that larger hole that the commission must figure out how to plug by recommendations to the governor and General Assembly.

Almost none of the advocates who testified yesterday recommended specific ways in which the state could raise or save money rather than cut services. An exception was Gayle Hafner with the Maryland Disability Law Center, who implored the state to close large state institutions for the disabled and invest money instead in cheaper community care.

"Maybe, finally, you'll listen," she said. "You need the money, we need the freedom, it's a great deal."

At a news conference earlier in the day, a group called Alliance to Invest in Maryland, a loose coalition of about 60 organizations, also offered suggestions.

Sean Dobson of Progressive Maryland said his group will issue a report next week outlining the hundreds of millions of dollars Maryland loses each year because of loopholes in the state tax code that benefit corporations. Dobson hopes the next governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., will help close those loopholes as part of his campaign promise to end the state's "culture of corruption."

And Judith B. Morenoff, president of the League of Women Voters of Maryland, said her group backs increasing personal income taxes for the wealthy and expanding the sales and use tax to nonessential services, for instance.

Amid the griping yesterday, Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, a Charles County Democrat who serves on the commission, offered a lone streak of silver lining. "Cuts are going to be painful," he said. "But I think we have to be mindful of the great strides we've made in this state in the past few years."